News Archive

Untill 2004 BPRC was the only primate research centre in Europe that had chimpanzees. These chimpanzees have been used for biomedical research which has, amongst other things, made a vital contribution to the development of vaccines for very serious infectious diseases.

In 2002 the Dutch government asked the Dutch Royal Academy of Science (KNAW) to carry out a review (a scientific audit) of BPRC. In their final report after this review the KNAW state that biomedical research with primates is still essential for public health. They also reported that scientific research at BPRC is of a high quality. They felt, however, that unlike the colonies of Old World and New World monkeys, the colony of chimpanzees at BPRC was not big enough to sustain a long-term scientific research programme. They noted that there were larger colonies in the USA that could be used by researchers in situations where chimpanzee research was critical.

BPRC has been home to a colony of Cotton-top tamarins for several years. This colony was previously housed at the University of Bristol. The species originates in South America where it is under threat in the wild. When Cotton-top tamarins were no longer needed for research programmes at BPRC an outplacement programme was set up for zoos participating in an international breeding programme aimed at the conservation of this endangered species.

A working group report under the Chairmanship of Professor David Weatherall concludes that there is a strong scientific case to maintain biomedical research activities using non-human primates in carefully selected areas.

Where did HIV come from, how did chimpanzees acquire this virus in the wild, and why don’t they develop AIDS as frequently as humans do? These questions are the subject of one of the lines of research in the Department of Virology at BPRC. This type of research does not require studies with chimpanzees themselves.

Twenty eight infected chimpanzees have been moved to a Special Care Unit built by “Stichting Aap” in Almere (the Netherlands). These animals have made an important contribution to the research on infectious deseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis.

Every cell type in the body is characterised by having a unique set of proteins, a protein "fingerprint". These proteins are the workhorses of the cell, and each one has a different function. Recently techniques have been developed that allow the protein fingerprint of a cell to be established.

In June two groups of chimpanzees (a mixed group of 9 animals and a group of 4 males) were moved to Safaripark De Beekse Bergen. These animals were part of the chimpanzee group that was planned to move to Primadomus, a monkey-specialised facility in Spain planned by “Stichting Aap”.